Thread: First Experience - Some success, some questions

Hello to all!

So, 2 weeks ago I started honing my razors.
The first 2 razors I honed (both half-hollow ground, no smile, good spine condition) got sharp without any problems.
I started on a jap. waterstone grit 4000, then moved up to 6000 and then to 8000. At the end some CroOx.
It was great. Thanks to all those great informations here in the forum

But than I tried my other 2 razors.
A W&B ¼ hollow with a smile, and a Boker half-hollow with a smile and a spine in bad condition.
It took me many hours (at least 5 hours per razors) to get them in moderate condition. I have to admit that I have done most of the work on the 8000 grit waterstone (more than 80 percent of all strokes were on the 8000 grit stone)
The Boker got some sharpness after I taped the spine.
I used teh swooping X-stroke on both smiling razors.
So overall the sharpness was moderate, but not great.

So here are my questions:

1. Is it normal that honing wedgie razors or razors with a smile lasts that long?
Or should I just do more work on a coarser stone (e.g. 4000) and not that much on teh 8000 grit stone?

2. All my razors seem to be less sharp at the heel. I watched Lynns honig video here, and my strokes are similar (direction of the strokes and so on…).
What am I doing wrong, and is it now possible to get the heel sharp without simultaneous honing the toe and the middle of the razor?

3. How does honing a frown happen?

Hope you can help me